Take Note, Toho, Dean Devlin, and Roland Emmerlich - THIS Is How It's Done!

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2014)

Even to this day, Toho's demented giant creature features and Devlin/Emmerlich's 1998 "Godzilla" remake have their defenders (and I am among them to a limited degree). Yet, every so often, even champions of these "kaiju" (Japanese for "monster") flicks, and I, must have wished that these flicks could get a sophisticated big-budget CGI blockbuster treatment and still remain faithful to their roots. To a triumphant degree, "Pacific Rim" (hereafter PR) has answered our prayers.
As it should be, the premise is simple and direct. As PR's prologue explains, for millennia, seemingly countless sky-towering kaiju kept emerging from a fissure or portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and ravaged the earth for food and resources. Fortunately, mankind discovered that heavy nuclear weaponry could repel and destroy these bizarre beasts - at first. However, more adaptable and invulnerable Kaiju emerged from the ocean floor. As a desperate last defense, mankind (through the Pan Pacific Defense Corps or PPDC) constructed skyscraper-sized robots called Jaegers (German for "Hunters") to combat the Kaiju.
These robots are not sentient. Indeed, because of their colossal size, Jaegers require two pilots, each representing the left and right hemispheres of the brain, to operate the left and right sides of the robot body - like a combination of virtual reality and remote control. To make sure the Jaeger functions fluidly (and not like a schizophrenic drunk), the two pilots must establish a neural link (called the drift) that permits telepathic communication and sharing of ideas and memories. The only drawback to the drift is that the pilots may share traumatic memories that inhibit their performance and jeopardize the mission.
Among the best of the Jaegar pilots is gung-ho, cocky, but appealing Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and his brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff). However, an abortive Kaiju mission costs Yancy his life. His confidence understandably shaken, Raleigh becomes an engineer working to build towering walls in a vain attempt to keep the Kaiju out. After the barriers prove ineffective, PPDC commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba, a dependable actor redeeming himself after his underwritten role in "Prometheus") recruits Raleigh to give the Jaegers (namely Gypsy Danger) another go. Besides his loss of nerve, another obstacle to Raleigh's getting back in the saddle is finding a "neurally compatible" pilot. Athletic, nimble, and martial-arts savvy Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) seems to be the ideal candidate.
Things get off to a catastrophic start. Mako's painful memory of a catastrophic Kaiju city attack that killed her family while she was a very young girl causes the Jaeger to go haywire. As a result, Pentecost benches Raleigh and Mako and sends the remaining Jaeger team out. But when the team proves helpless against a Kaiju Hong Kong invasion, Stacker grudgingly deploys Raleigh and Mako, who get their act together and in a titanic battle stop both Kaiju.
Meanwhile, the loudly arrogant and bespectacled Dr. Newton (Newt) Geiszler (Charlie Day) examines cerebral tissue obtained from Kaiju corpses, including the one left in Hong Kong plus its fetus (!), and from a shady, potentially lethal "Kaiju body parts" black marketer Hannibal Chau. Dr. Geiszler finds he can create his own neural link with the beasts and gradually learn more about them. Of course this two-way reciprocal link means the Kaiju can read and pinpoint Dr. Geiszler's mind, which imperiled the Hong Kong bunker where Geiszler hid with some of the population. With the help of the peevishly skeptical Dr. Herman Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) this all leads to a possible solution to the Kaiju problem: if the Jaegers can infiltrate the Kaiju portal and destroy it from within, no more monsters can pour out. Can the Jaegers -named Gypsy Danger- do it, and can its pilots Raleigh and Mako get out alive?
I found PR to be a satisfying but not mind-numbing adrenaline rush, with well-paced but exhilarating human,robot and monster action. And yet PR took the time to develop character motivations and interactions, even if you've seen them a million times before, and to make them affecting and achingly real. Mako's memory of her encounter with a Kaiju was especially shocking, sad, and eerily reminiscent of 9/11. Raleigh was appropriately committed, supportive, and loyal, especially to his partner but (refreshingly) not lover Mako, and strangely both loyal to and defiant of Stacker. Stacker demonstrated both leadership toughness and (almost overprotective) paternal care towards an unexpected adoptive daughter, and can certainly deliver an inspirational fight speech. And oh, yes, the scientists did manage to be funny despite occasional abrasiveness. I look forward to buying the DVD.
P.S.: I am dismayed to learn that PR is turning out to be a flop in the States. Initially, I was baffled by this, then I pondered a few possible reasons why: 1) Although there are protagonists in the movie, primarily Raleigh and Mako, I guess they weren't featured often or prominently enough for some people; 2) Almost all of the monster/robot fight scenes were filmed at night, perhaps to conceal some perceived CGI flaws; 3) Admittedly it was sometimes difficult to differentiate the fighting combatants because of some quick, close-up editing, 4) I believe some people have a xenophobic and foreign bias against seemingly "non-American" movies, and 5) "Kaiju" movies may have mainly an esoteric or devoted cult status. Oh well, that is their concern. As retribution, I hope PR cleans up overseas, and particularly breaks box-office records in Japan.
P.P.S.: I've heard that a 2014 Godzilla remake is in the works. For it to succeed, I highly recommend it have the lines "He's unstoppable." and/or "All our weapons are useless against him."